If you have ever needed to draw attention to a single phrase on a slide, you have probably searched for how to highlight in ppt, because PowerPoint does not make its highlighting tool quite as obvious as a word processor does. The good news is that highlighting in PowerPoint is straightforward once you know where the tool lives, and this guide walks you through every method, from the built-in text highlight colour button to freeform shapes, keyboard shortcuts, and workarounds for the web version. Whether you are preparing a lesson, a sales deck, or a revision handout, learning how to highlight in ppt will help your audience find the key point in seconds.
Highlighting matters because slides are scanned, not read word by word. An audience glances at a slide, picks out the boldest or brightest element, and then listens to the speaker. A well-placed highlight acts like a signpost, telling viewers exactly where to look while you explain the idea behind it. Used sparingly, it improves comprehension and recall; used on every line, it loses all power. The techniques below therefore come with advice on when to highlight, which colours to choose, and how to keep your deck readable.
how to highlight in ppt: The Built-In Text Highlight Colour Tool
The simplest answer to how to highlight in ppt is the Text Highlight Colour button on the Home tab. Open your presentation, click inside a text box, and drag to select the words you want to emphasise. Then go to the Home tab, find the Font group, and click the small arrow next to the Text Highlight Colour button, which looks like a marker pen over letters. Choose a colour, and the selected text immediately gains a coloured background, just like a highlighter on paper.
If you click the main part of the button rather than the arrow, PowerPoint applies the colour shown beneath the icon, which is usually yellow by default. To remove a highlight, select the same text, open the colour menu again, and choose None. This method works in the desktop versions of PowerPoint for Windows and Mac, and it is the method most people mean when they ask how to highlight in ppt, because it is fast, reversible, and easy to teach to colleagues.
Where to Find the Button if You Cannot See It
On some screens the ribbon is collapsed or the Font group is narrowed, which can hide the highlight button. Double-click the Home tab to expand the ribbon, or widen the PowerPoint window, and the Font group should reveal the full set of controls. On a Mac, the button sits in the same Font section of the Home tab, though the icon may look slightly different depending on your version. If you still cannot find it, use the search box at the top of the ribbon and type Text Highlight Colour, and PowerPoint will point you to the command directly.
One limitation is worth knowing: the built-in highlight tool only works on text inside a text box or placeholder. It does not work on text inside a SmartArt graphic or on a picture. For those cases, the shape method described below is the better route, and it gives you more control over colour and placement anyway.
how to highlight in ppt Step by Step on Windows and Mac
For a reliable step-by-step routine, follow this sequence every time you need to know how to highlight in ppt in the desktop app. First, select the text box and highlight the exact words with your mouse or keyboard. Second, open the Home tab and the Text Highlight Colour menu. Third, pick a colour that contrasts with your slide background and your font colour, such as yellow on dark text or cyan on a light slide. Fourth, click outside the text box to check the result from a distance, as if you were sitting in the back row of the room.
On Windows, you can speed this up by keeping the highlight colour menu pinned in your workflow: once you have chosen a colour, that colour stays selected, so later highlights need only a text selection and a single click on the button itself. On Mac, the behaviour is the same, and the highlight survives saving, closing, and reopening the file. If you share the deck with someone using an older version of PowerPoint, the highlight still displays correctly, because text highlighting is a standard formatting feature rather than a new effect.
Choosing Colours That Stay Readable
Colour choice is where most highlighting goes wrong. Yellow is the classic choice because it is bright without overpowering dark text, and it prints well in both colour and greyscale. Green, cyan, and pink also work on light backgrounds, while orange and magenta suit short warnings or calls to action. Avoid highlighting white text, because a light highlight will wash it out, and avoid highlighting a whole paragraph, because a wall of colour is harder to read than plain text. A good rule is to highlight no more than a phrase or a short sentence per slide, and to use the same colour consistently for the same kind of point.
Accessibility matters too. Some viewers have low vision or colour vision differences, so do not rely on colour alone to carry meaning. Pair the highlight with bold text or a brief spoken explanation, such as saying the highlighted figure aloud during your talk. That way the emphasis survives even if the colour does not, for example when slides are printed in black and white or viewed on a dim projector.
Highlighting With Shapes for Full Control
When the built-in tool is not enough, shapes give you a second way to highlight. Insert a rectangle from the Shapes menu, draw it behind or over your text, and set its fill colour to a bright highlight tone. If you place it behind the text, send it backward so the words stay visible; if you place it over the text, reduce its transparency so the words show through, creating a marker effect. This technique is ideal for highlighting a single word on a title slide, for marking a figure in a table, or for creating a hand-drawn marker look with a freeform shape.
Shapes also solve the SmartArt and picture problem, because you can draw a highlight shape anywhere on a slide, regardless of what sits underneath it. You can round the corners, soften the edges with transparency, or animate the shape so it appears at the moment you discuss the point. For teachers and trainers, this method is popular because it mimics the look of a physical highlighter sweeping across a whiteboard, and it works in every version of PowerPoint, including older ones.
The Transparency Trick for a Marker Look
To make a shape look like real marker ink, set its fill transparency to around 40 to 60 percent, remove its outline, and stretch it slightly beyond the text on both sides. A yellow rectangle at 50 percent transparency over dark text looks convincingly like a highlighter stroke, while still keeping every letter legible. You can save this shape as a favourite by copying and pasting it onto other slides, which keeps your highlighting consistent across a whole deck without reformatting each time.
Many people who search for how to highlight in ppt are actually preparing a deck on a work laptop and presenting from a different machine, so it is worth testing the file on the presenting device before the day. A quick check confirms that the answer to how to highlight in ppt worked as expected on that screen, and it also confirms that the answer to how to highlight in ppt survives the round trip through email or shared drives without losing its colours.
Highlighting in PowerPoint for the Web
PowerPoint for the web is a common stumbling block, because its ribbon is simpler than the desktop ribbon and the highlight button is not always present. If you open a deck in a browser and cannot find Text Highlight Colour, try the shape method above, which works in the web app as well. Alternatively, apply the highlight in the desktop app first, then upload the file: the web app will display existing highlights correctly even if it does not offer the button to create new ones in every account type.
Another web workaround is text box shading. Select the text box, open its formatting options, and set a fill colour for the box itself. This highlights the whole box rather than individual words, which suits callout boxes, key statistics, and quoted lines. It is less precise than true text highlighting, but it is reliable, visible, and easy to undo, and it keeps your deck looking intentional rather than improvised.
Once you have practised the steps a few times, the question of how to highlight in ppt stops feeling technical and starts feeling automatic, which is exactly what you want before a live talk. The fastest routine for how to highlight in ppt is to select the phrase, tap the highlight button you have already set to your favourite colour, and move on, and the fastest way to learn how to highlight in ppt is to try it on a practice slide rather than on the deck you are about to present.
Keyboard Shortcuts and Faster Workflows
PowerPoint has no single default shortcut for highlighting, but you can build a fast workflow with the tools you already know. Select text with Shift and the arrow keys, then use the ribbon shortcuts to reach the Font group without touching the mouse. Power users often add Text Highlight Colour to the Quick Access Toolbar, so it sits above the ribbon and is always one click away. Once it is there, highlighting becomes a two-step action: select, then click.
For repeated highlighting across many slides, consider the Format Painter. Highlight one phrase, double-click Format Painter to lock it, then click each additional phrase you want to match. The painter copies the highlight colour along with other formatting, so your deck stays consistent. Readers who do a lot of text selection may also enjoy our guide to keyboard shortcuts for highlighting text, and if you work across Office apps, see converting a table to text in Word and colour and background options for text for related formatting ideas.
| Method | Best For | Works In | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Highlight Colour button | Single words and phrases | Desktop Windows and Mac | Low |
| Shape behind text | Titles and callouts | Desktop and web | Medium |
| Transparent shape over text | Marker-pen effect | Desktop and web | Medium |
| Text box fill colour | Whole quotes and statistics | Desktop and web | Low |
| Bold plus highlight | Accessible emphasis | All versions | Low |
A useful self-test is to ask whether a stranger could spot the point of the slide in three seconds, because that is the real test of how to highlight in ppt well. If the eye lands on the highlighted phrase immediately, your use of how to highlight in ppt is working, and if the eye wanders, the slide probably needs fewer highlighted words rather than a brighter colour, which is a lesson every guide to how to highlight in ppt eventually teaches.
Common Highlighting Mistakes to Avoid
The most common mistake is highlighting too much. When half a slide glows yellow, nothing stands out, and the audience stops trusting the signal. Highlight the figure, the decision, or the deadline, and leave the supporting words plain. A second mistake is clashing colours: a pink highlight on a red slide background, or a pale highlight over pale grey text, can make words unreadable. Always preview your slide at full-screen size and, if possible, on the projector or screen you will actually use.
A third mistake is forgetting to check the printed version. Many decks are printed as handouts, and a bright highlight that looks great on screen can turn muddy on paper. Print one test slide in greyscale before you finalise a handout, and confirm that highlighted words are still distinguishable, ideally because they are also bold. Finally, remember that highlighting is emphasis, not decoration. If a slide needs three colours of highlight to make sense, the slide probably needs fewer words instead.
Teachers in particular ask about how to highlight in ppt for revision slides, where a highlighted term can anchor a whole discussion, and the same principle applies to business decks, where a highlighted figure anchors a decision. Whatever the setting, the core of how to highlight in ppt stays the same, select, colour, and check, and the confidence that comes from knowing how to highlight in ppt lets you focus on what you are saying instead of on the software.
Frequently Asked Questions About Highlighting in PowerPoint
Can I highlight text in PowerPoint like in Word?
Yes, in the desktop app. Select the text, go to the Home tab, open the Text Highlight Colour menu in the Font group, and pick a colour. The result looks very similar to Word highlighting and is saved with the file.
Why can I not find the highlight button?
The button may be hidden by a collapsed ribbon, a narrow window, or the simpler web ribbon. Expand the ribbon, widen the window, search the ribbon for Text Highlight Colour, or use the shape method, which works everywhere.
How do I remove a highlight?
Select the highlighted text, open the Text Highlight Colour menu, and choose None. For a shape highlight, click the shape and delete it. For a filled text box, set the fill back to no fill.
Does highlighting work when I present?
Yes. Highlights are part of the slide design and appear in slideshow mode, in presenter view, and in exported PDFs, so your audience sees exactly what you formatted.
Conclusion
Learning how to highlight in ppt comes down to knowing two tools: the built-in Text Highlight Colour button for quick word-level emphasis, and shapes for everything else, from title slides to web decks to marker-style effects. Choose one highlight colour per idea, keep it to a phrase at a time, pair it with bold text for accessibility, and preview the result at full size. With those habits, your highlights will do what they are meant to do: guide the eye, support your message, and make the most important words on each slide impossible to miss.
